Their Destiny
by tvfan69
Summary: It was too cliche of a love story, which was all the more reason for Jade not to believe in it. Roy thought finding Speedy was his sole purpose in life. This is a short story about how these two got together, and what happened in the end. (chapter one is a songfic!)
1. Shut up and Dance

Roy coughed lightly as the second hand smoke from a man with a cigarette filled his lungs while he entered the old concrete building. Despite the building's age it was by far one of the more popular nightclubs and was as a common meet place for criminals almost as much as it was for people looking for a good time, unfortunately for Roy tonight he couldn't say he was here to stop the criminals. Among the colorful lights and loud music the red head made his way to an empty table where he had been instructed to wait for his informant.

He didn't particularly enjoy playing so close to the criminal underworld but in his eyes there is no other choice, every day that passes is another day Speedy is still being held hostage, or worse. It's been a year since he vowed to find Speedy, a year since the last time he had a decent nights sleep.

"How did I know it was you?" The sultry and teasingly familiar voice of a woman questioned from behind him.

Roy didn't have to turn around to know it was her, or for her to sense the obvious displeasure in his face. He knew she could feel it, the same way he could feel her smirk for a moment before she faced him with a disappointed frown as she passed him. Her back was to him only for a brief moment before she sat down across from him but it was long enough for him to notice that her short blue dress didn't have a back to it, and he didn't catch any glimpse of a bra.

 _She wouldn't come to a club without a bra, would she?_ He thought to himself, he doesn't know much about women but he couldn't imagine that dancing and moving around a lot could be very comfortable like that, then again she probably had some unseen solution that Roy would never think of.

"Cheshire" he said her alias in disgust "I should've known they'd send you" she smirked at his obvious dislike of her being his informant.

"Like I'm stupid enough to do a job without my mask" she began

"You did once," Roy reminded her

"Face paint. Anyway they didn't send me, I came here to warn you," she told the red haired man who was currently looking at her with more and more skepticism. "The Shadow's know you're looking for Speedy, your 'informant' tonight was going to pull a gun and kill you," she admitted to him.

"Yet I'm still alive," he remarked but when the woman across from him did nothing more than stare him down, he got the message. "You aren't the one I'm supposed to meet are you?" He asked

"You need to get out of here, he'll be here soon," she warned

"Who?" Roy questioned

"Whoever they were sending!" She snapped in a loud whisper, getting annoyed with her stubborn 'enemy'.

"Why should I trust you?" Roy questioned

"Why shouldn't you? If I'm remembering correctly the last time we saw each other I almost fell off a building, but you saved me. I figure I owe you one Roy," she explained to him but he simply looked at her perplexedly.

"How did you?" He began to ask but stopped upon seeing her smirk, he should've known she knew his name.

"Sportsmaster was in charge of you, and the Shadow's seem to have a sick sense of humor when it comes to my assignments. I was with him enough to learn a few things about you," she explained, for a moment her eyes betrayed her and look almost guilty, and if Roy were better at reading faces he would've seen that she allowed that on purpose, she was trying to let him in.

Just then her focus shifted and she looked past the man sitting across from her, closely studying a man in a suit who had just entered the building. He was a young man; though Cheshire didn't know his exact age she knew that he was only a year or two older than she was herself. He was African-American and had the beginnings of a goatee forming on his chin.

"He's here" she warned Roy who almost looked over his shoulder but stopped when she placed her, surprisingly gentle, hand atop his own.

The look Roy gave her when she did this, to Jade at least, was absolutely priceless.

"It stopped you from turning around, didn't it?" She quickly excused but Roy only smirked.

He didn't have time to enjoy this little victory of seeing Cheshire something closed to embarrassed, because the next thing he knew she was on her feet and pulling at his arm for him to join her.

"What are you doing?" He asked but he got no answer as she pulled him onto the dance floor.

He was going to pull her arm from him, but when he looked down to do so he became distracted by the fact that he saw her shoes, she was wearing a pair od very beat up sneakers.

 _Where the heck did this woman come from?_

While he pondered this Cheshire dragged him into the middle of the crowd and before Roy even knew what happened he was dancing along with her.

"Geez Roy, you dance like a plank of wood" she commented

"Well excuse me for not wanting to draw attention to myself when one of your friends is after me" he excused and Cheshire rolled her eyes. Not even a minute later Roy's curiosity of what this man he was avoiding looked like got the better of him and he began to turn around, but a hand on the side of his face turned him back.

"Don't you dare look back," Cheshire warned him

"But-" he tried to argue.

"Just keep your eyes on me" she said and in that one moment Roy managed to answer a question that had been burning inside of him since the day he learned the truth.

When he first found out he was a clone he had a lot of thoughts, one of which was _I'm not even supposed to be alive, Speedy is! This is his life, and it's my job to find him._ But he had Speedy's memories. He had the memories of his childhood, Speedy's childhood, growing up on the Indian reservation. He had memories of the tribe elders telling him about destiny, but upon discovering he was a clone he believed that he was not worthy of a destiny, he doesn't have one.

But in that moment he knew. This woman, who's real name he wasn't even 100% sure of, but she is his destiny. So he danced with her, he could tell by the look on her face, the way one eye kept looking past him, that she was watching this 'informant'.

"He knows your identity?" Roy asked and Jade nodded, now focusing entirely past him so he stepped directly in front of her and blocked her view of whoever she was watching.

"He's a Shadow and he knows your tricks. It's only a matter of time before he sees you watching him," he said; if this guy caught her then he'd be suspicious and they'd both end up dead.

Cheshire looked like she wanted to argue, in fact it looked like it was killing her that he was right, but she nodded and stopped watching the man who was still sitting at their previously occupied table, waiting for Roy. Despite this Roy knew that for whatever reason she had, cause never could he believe she actually cares about him, she was still worrying. He could see it in the way she danced, he couldn't believe it but she actually looked unsure of herself.

"You're holding back," he told her. She looked surprised at first, like she couldn't believe he hadn't taken the opportunity of seeing her uncomfortable to mock her. But seeing an opportunity of her own she cracked a small smile and grabbed one of his hands.

"Shut up and dance with me."

Neither of them knew how long they stayed on that dance floor, all they knew was that they never wanted to get off. Jade was never comfortable dancing, it wasn't that she didn't know how, it was just something she never really did. She ran away, and as a result dropped out of school, before she became old enough for a school dance. There had only been one before she ran away, a sixth grade meet and greet, but at eleven years old she was FAR more shy than the confident woman she had grown up to be. But here, with Roy spinning her around and guiding her until she was ready to let go and guide herself, she found those old feelings of shyness evaporating until they were completely gone. She also found that her initial purpose for dragging Roy onto the floor was off in the back of her mind, and catching a glimpse of the table she saw that Eric, Roy's so called 'informant', was gone. But she waited a few more minutes to tell Roy that.

They were both almost completely out of breath when they returned to the once again unoccupied table.

"It's getting late, I better get going" Roy said, glancing down at his watch.

"You're welcome" Jade said as he got up to leave, shaking his head with a smirk.

"See you later Jade" He said and as he walked out of the club Jade smiled to herself, of course he knew her name.


	2. Marry Me

"Ugh" Roy groaned as he and Cheshire returned to their hotel room after another long and, once again, unsuccessful night.

"What are you whining about?" Jade questioned as she removed her mask, "All we did was stake out an empty building."

When Roy didn't give an answer Jade tossed her mask onto the most likely bug infested bed and crossed the room. "Whatever, I'm going to take a shower," she announced, after spending the past four hours crouched behind a dumpster, she felt like she may as well have been sitting in it.

Once his girlfriend had occupied the room's tiny bathroom Roy crashed down onto the bed, however despite the fact that it was almost three in the morning and he hadn't slept in two days he refused to lie down. Instead he sat on the edge of the bed, mask no longer on his face, and began to think. It had been almost three years since he discovered he's a clone, and everyone but him had given up on Speedy. The league was willing to help at first, but after about six months he could see them beginning to give up. By the end of the first year most of them had and the search party had been diminished to Batman, Ollie, Dinah, and himself. The four of them had worked regularly on finding a lead for Speedy, and although Roy had no idea what he would do with his life after the found him, Ollie assured him that clone or no clone he would always be his son. Roy couldn't have been happier to hear that, but at the same time he and Ollie's relationship was still a bit strained and he had walked away from the older man.

 _He was lying anyway_ Roy tried to convince himself. That conversation had been roughly a year ago and since then the others, Ollie included, had given up the search.

Now it was just Roy himself.

Correction, it was Roy and Jade.

Roy wasn't sure how he ended up dating Jade, nor could he pinpoint exactly when it happened. Sure he could figure out the moment when he knew he loved her, but never the moment when the two became a couple. Still she was different than anyone and everyone else who had ever been in his life. The others had all given up, not just on Speedy, but on him as well. But Jade, she stuck by him. She isn't like the others. They all tried to help him by getting him to give it up, but Jade follows him without a word of protest. She understands that this is what he needs to do.

Roy chuckled silently to himself, remembering a conversation the two of them had not too long ago after yet another dead end.

 _The two of them were lying in bed, back at the abandoned apartment in D.C., which wasn't much better than the cheap hotels they often stayed in. Roy was awake and staring up at the ceiling while Jade lye on her side facing away from him._

 _"Why do you stick around?" He asked her_

 _"What you mean?" Her tone implied that she was half asleep but he knows her to well, he knew that she was only pretending._

 _"You know what I mean Jade" he said and with a defeated sigh she rolled onto her back._

 _"You're stubborn Red, and this is something you need to do. I know I can't stop you, but I sure as hell can stop you from going alone" she said to him, that was when Roy knew, 100%, that he was in love._

"You better not break that" Jade's warning interrupted his thoughts when she saw that he was holding her mask, his thumb moving gingerly over the features of it.

Roy looked up just as she reached the bed. She picked up her backpack and began rummaging through it, no doubt for her hairbrush, and tried not to smile at the way her boyfriend was staring at her.

That was one thing she loved about him, just moments like this when she was wearing nothing more than a pair of too tight gym shorts and a tank top, not to mention still soaking wet, and he stared at her face. Sure there were always moments where he would stare at, something else, and she liked that too. It provided her with some pretty good jokes at the least. But moments like this, moments where not even she could deny that she was loved, that she appreciated the most.

"Are you going to shower or just sit there gawking?" She finally asked him because, really, she can't let him figure out how much she likes it.

"It's too late to shower" Roy complained, prompting Jade to glance at the room's digital clock and see that it was almost three in the morning.

"Too early you mean" she corrected and Roy only rolled his eyes

"Whatever" he muttered.

Finally locating her brush Jade began to rake it through her long, thick hair. She had never been particularly great at the art of brushing hair, and was never really good at getting out all the knots. She tried her best but it took a lot of effort and in the mirror she could see the reflection of Roy visibly flinching in the background at the ripping sound it made.

"How does that not hurt?" He asked her

"My nerves died a _long_ time ago" Jade responded.

With a roll of his eyes Roy slipped back into his thoughts and Jade continued to pull her brush through her hair. If she were to be honest she would admit to Roy that it does hurt, not nearly as much as it did when she was a kid, but she still feels the pain.

The room was quiet again until she put down her hairbrush.

"You know, we're only about twenty minutes away from Vegas" Roy said, breaking the silence.

"So?" Jade snorted as she turned around "I thought you hated gambling"

"Not that, I was thinking Vegas has a lot of twenty-four hour wedding chapels" he suggested and Jade didn't know whether to panic or start laughing. She knew one thing though; Roy had gone off the deep end.

"I'm sorry but were you drinking tonight and I didn't notice? Or did all those dumpster fumes go to your head?" She sarcastically asked as he stood up, looking just a little offended.

"I'm serious Chesh, we've been together for what? Two years now?" He asked

"How should I know?" Jade snorted in amusement "we never went officially on or off record, but two years sounds about right" she added and now Roy walked right over to her and took her hands in his, the whole thing was beginning to scare Jade as she quickly realized that her boyfriend was both sober and dead serious.

"Exactly. We've been together two years now and I _know_ that I am never going to leave you" he said and the next thing Jade knew he was down on one knee. "In the last few years you have been the _only_ light in my life so Jade Nguyen, will you marry me?" He asked her, his voice taking on a slightly pleading tone partway through the proposal.

Jade wanted to say no, every single wall she had ever put up was screaming the word. But her heart, in her heart she so desperately wanted to say yes.

"Yes, now get up and take a shower" she giggled, yes Jade giggled, before pulling Roy to his feet.

At first Roy just looked dumbstruck, but the look was quickly replaced by a huge grin before he cupped his girlfriend's, no his fiancée's, cheeks and pulled her into him for a kiss. Their kiss was short but passionate and soon Roy rushed off to take a quick shower.

As she heard the water in the bathroom turn on Jade sat down on the bed, replaying in her head what had just happened. For a moment she thought maybe they shouldn't do this, after all if they were to get married wouldn't he want his family there?

 _What family?_ She immediately thought to herself. Roy doesn't have any actual family and he has no plans to start talking to his mentor again any time soon.

That was when Jade knew she was right; this is crazy. They were going to drive twenty minutes into Las Vegas and get married at four in the morning on Christmas Eve. It is by far one of the craziest things they have ever done. But then again they had never been a normal couple; they were a semi-retired hero and assassin for gods sake! Their first time 'taking each other out' had been when they were literally trying to take each other out.

 _It's too easy. Love doesn't come easy, especially not to me_ Jade thought to herself, but tonight her head was on a losing streak and less than an hour later, in a small and practically empty wedding chapel, she became Jade Harper.


	3. Family Bonds (Part 1)

"Oh no, no, no, no, no…" Jade continuously repeated as she paced around the bathroom of the abandoned apartment in D.C. which she and her husband hid out in.

The reason for her sudden anxiety and panic?

A stupid pink stick teetering on the edge of the sink.

"Ok calm down Jade, it could be worse" she said to herself "it could be a lot worse" she whispered.

She knew she was right about that, the idea of children had crossed her mind many times throughout her life but never as anything more than a _maybe someday_ kind of thought. Well now there was no maybe about it and 'someday' was going to be here sooner than she wanted. But things could still be worse; Jade had always assumed that if she ever found herself in this situation she would be about seventeen and on her own. Never in a million years did she truly believe that she would be twenty-three and married.

But another thing she knew is that Roy isn't ready.

His obsession with finding Speedy was beginning to get worse; it had become all consuming. In the past week he had only been home about twice, she would've been with him but she fainted on two searches, one of which involved a run in with some thugs, thankfully ones whom Jade didn't know. Roy's obsession was fine for her; she could deal with him and help him, but a kid? No way, now how. Even as a toddler playing with a baby doll, Jade had promised that she would never be like her parents, and she wouldn't. She wasn't going to let her child grow up with Roy for a father the way he is now; she was going to fix things.

"Ok, how much time do I have?" Jade asked herself and began running some calculations in her head.

She figured that given her natural build she wouldn't start showing until she was about three months along, three and a half if she was lucky. Four she could probably hide it but by four and a half to five Roy and anybody else she saw regularly, which was very few people, would have to be blind not to notice. She also figured that, given the close monitoring she had on her period, there was no possible way she was more than eight weeks along right now, and even that was stretching it. Still that only gave her a month at the least and three months at the absolute most to do what she and Roy had spent the past three and a half years trying to do, find Speedy.

* * *

Jade decided that the first thing she needed to do was see a doctor, she believed the test she had bought from the drug store but still, she couldn't be too safe. She ended up just going to a walk in clinic, she didn't have a doctor that she visited every six months or so like you're supposed to and although there was a place within the criminal underworld for this sort of thing there was no way in hell she was going there. So once she had it confirmed, that she was indeed pregnant, she returned to the apartment where she found Roy lying on the couch.

He was asleep, snoring loudly with a half drunken bottle of beer resting on the coffee table.

 _Another dead end_ Jade thought and she looked around the apartment. It was dark, damp, cold, and littered with trash such as empty pizza boxes and beer cans. Her chances of finding Speedy before she would be forced to tell Roy about the baby were already slim, never mind the apartment. _The apartment doesn't matter, I could fix that in three days if I wanted to_ she mused to herself. She knew that the apartment wasn't the issue; it was what it was a reflection of that was. It was the hideout of a stray hero and a former assassin, yes former. It had been nearly three years since Jade pulled a serious crime job and she considered herself to be out of the life.

Walking silently into the bedroom she grabbed her backpack from its position next to the bed and began rifling through it, making sure she had everything. Once she had confirmed that all its contents were present she pulled out her mask and looked at it, for the first time she noticed how truly deadly it looked. Shaking her head she put the mask into the bag and slung it over her shoulder, before she left she stood over her sleeping husband and took one last look at him.

"If you find Speedy without me, I'll kill you" she said and with that she was out the window.

* * *

Two and a half months later and Cheshire found herself leaping across the rooftops of Gotham City, and wondering how much longer she would be able to keep this up. So far she had pulled about six robbery and assassin jobs since she left Roy, and each time she got a little closer to finding Speedy. At this rate she was going to have to bring Roy along with her if she ever got a solid lead, and if that happened then she was waiting until after the baby arrived.

Upon reaching her destination Cheshire pulled herself out of her thoughts and forced herself to focus. She took a deep breath before entering through the window of the vacant apartment she was meeting her employer in.

"Breathing to hard," she cursed under her breath as she leveled her breathing before she entered the top floor apartment and dumped her backpack on the floor.

"Not bad little girl" a familiar gravely voice commented as its owner emerged from the shadows.

"You!" Jade shouted in alarm as she wiped off her mask and pointed a sai directly at her employer's face, she knew she shouldn't have taken Ra's al Ghul's tip that he had a friend who needed a job done and would give her information in return.

"You made pretty good time, not your best, but pretty decent considering you were working with a partner," Sportsmaster taunted and Cheshire couldn't help it when her eyes widened, he knows.

"Ra's must have given you the wrong information, I work alone, just like always." She said calmly while internally fighting the natural reaction to glance down at herself and make sure she had hidden her small bump as well as she initially thought.

Sportsmaster laughed at her comment "Ra's doesn't know. You can fool most people for now Cheshire, but sooner or later that thing inside of you is going to become noticeable." He warned and for a moment the fear Jade felt subsided, and was replaced by hate.

She could never understand how after all these years his heartlessness still surprises her, but it does. Despite their terrible relationship he is still her father, she is still his _daughter,_ and yet here he is referring to her baby, his _grandchild,_ as "that thing".

"And I'm willing to bet it's going to be sooner" he taunted, by this point he was standing directly behind her and despite his mask she could feel his breath in her ear.

"So what? Did you give me this job just to torture me?" She hissed, glaring over her shoulder at him.

"Easy little girl, you'll still get the information" he said, "I hired you because it was the only way to be sure you'd come"

"What after three years of not seeing me around the prison circuit you wanted to make sure I was still alive?" She questioned and when he put a hand on her shoulder she shook it off violently and spun around to face him "didn't know you cared that much" she taunted.

Sportsmaster responded by taking off his mask, revealing the strange mix of amusement, his usual stone face, and, to Jade's astonishment, slight concern.

"I care enough to warn you" he began "I know you think you can handle this Jade, what you're doing, and maybe you can. But no matter what you tell yourself the fact is that your kid can't" he deadpanned. "Your mother and I were the same way with you, we found out she was pregnant and I let her talk me into keeping her on until she said she had enough, you've heard the story of that day haven't you?" He asked and with a sudden gulp of fear Jade finally dropped her defense and nodded. She had heard the story of her birth, how her mother, just a little over seven months pregnant, was acting as a lookout for her dad and Professor Ojo. The battle wasn't that bad but between a few close gunshots, a lot of unnecessary stress, and some rotten luck, Jade came early and she came fast.

"If you're anything like your mother, and if that kid is anything like you, then keep this up and you'll find yourself in a very compromising position" he warned, pointing an accusing finger her way.

"I don't suppose you're going to help me?" Jade questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Where you end up is your problem little girl, just be careful" he said again as he pulled his mask down over his face. "Oh and as for the information you wanted, The Light was being all hush-hush about some cargo they had moved to what's supposed to be a monastery in Tibet a couple years back. I don't know what it is but with the amount of security they had during the move it might be worth checking out" he tipped.

"Aren't you a member of the light?" Jade asked him skeptically, she wouldn't put it above her father to send his pregnant daughter into a trap just to prove a point.

"So is al Ghul but he sent you to me. We don't know what their hiding and we don't like it," he said as he opened the window, neglecting to pick up the worthless vase he'd had his daughter steal.

"So you want me to do your dirty work" Jade mused

"It's your choice Cheshire" Sportsmaster said as he tossed her her mask. "Choose wisely".


	4. Family Bonds (Part 2)

When Jade left Roy knew he had hit rock bottom. He had finally done it; he lost everything. The light of his life was gone, he came home one night to find a note from her saying she had gone out and thinking nothing of it he fell asleep on the couch, as far as he knew she never returned. When it came to three days and he still hadn't seen her, and despite his desperate need to find Speedy he didn't leave the apartment at all in that time, he thought about going to look for her. But he didn't know where to start. Sure he could think of a couple places she might go, but he also knew that if she wanted to avoid him then there was no way he would find her. After about a month he couldn't take it anymore and decided that the best he could do was either confirm or disprove his worst fear. However in order to do that he'd either have to go to The Watchtower or the cave in order to use a computer, or call someone from either the league or the younger team. No matter what he would have to get in touch with someone who would claim to be worried about him, and those were people who he did not want to deal with.

But turns out he didn't have to, because when he returned to his search for Speedy he ran into a familiar face.

* * *

A part of Jade knew that her father was right that pulling jobs while pregnant was only going to hurt not only her but also the baby in the long run, but being the stubborn girl she can be she ignored his warning solely because it came from him. Still she was getting closer, the information he gave her had turned out to be surprisingly promising, and tonight she was breaking into Cadmus labs for the location of the temple. If she could find the record of that cargo transfer then she could find the temple and hopefully find Speedy.

"You are starting to make this really difficult," she muttered under her breath, talking to her unborn child. A guard had just passed by so she was forced hide behind a corner. She hated hiding behind corners because it was basically hitting a wall and praying that the person you're hiding from is blind enough not to notice. Normally she could find a way to get herself on the ceiling or into dark spaces, but her child was starting to make that hard.

Actually that wasn't entirely true, yes she was starting to show and yes she had to be careful, but most of her caution was coming from paranoia. Though she was now wearing a sweatshirt over her usual kimono, despite the warm spring weather, she was still paranoid that it wasn't fooling anybody.

She pondered this as she raced to the record room.

"Whatever, hopefully this is my last job" she mused to herself as she hacked the lock and entered the room.

She was waiting for something to go wrong; so far this had all been too easy tonight. She was so close, and for her things always go wrong when she's this close.

Tonight was no exception.

* * *

For the most part Roy had stopped responding to distress calls, not that he ever got any to begin with. But he had a police radio, where he got it he'd rather not say, and when a report about a break in at Cadmus came in over the static he knew he had to go. He and Jim had already searched every in of Cadmus more times than either of them could count, but every time Cadmus made the media Roy went running back.

He went in through a second story window and quickly made his way down to the lower levels of Cadmus where an alarm was blaring loudly.

"Stupid Genomorphs" Cheshire cursed under her breath as she ran through the halls, clutching the file that she needed.

At some point one of the small gnome creatures had seen her and called it's friends, as if getting away from them wasn't hard enough now she had to worry about one of her husband's friends, or worse her sister, responding to the alarm, which one of the creatures had pulled.

Of course that was when an arrow flew past her face and she knew that no matter which archer it was, Artemis or Green Arrow, she was dead. However she also noticed that the arrow had red feathers… oh crap.

Looking down the hall Cheshire froze when she saw him, Roy, standing there with an arrow pointed at her, but lowering it.

"Jade?" He questioned, his voice barely a disbelieving whisper.

Roy couldn't believe it. Standing just at the other end of the short hallway was Jade, no, was Cheshire. She was wearing her mask and for whatever reason she was also wearing a baggy green sweatshirt, but he didn't give that much thought. In her hand she clutched a file, a stolen file, oh no. "Chesh what are you? Why?" He pleaded but she only shoved the file into the center pocket of her sweatshirt, had he been closer he would've seen the pain stricken and sorry eyes that hid behind his wife's mask.

"Something came up Red, and you weren't going to change" she said before she threw something at him, a smoke bomb.

Roy started choking before he felt dizzy and hi his knees, it was knock out gas. As she ran past he reached out to her, as if he could pull her back to him and apologize, but he couldn't. He woke up a few hours later in an empty hallway, with the knowledge of what had become of his wife, or so he thought.

* * *

Once she reached a roof far enough away from Cadmus Jade broke down. She began sobbing uncontrollably and gasping for breath. A part of her wanted to blame this breakdown on the hormones; the rest of her knew that was a complete lie. She felt guilty enough for leaving Roy before, but after seeing she felt awful. His hair was growing out and he looked like he hadn't shaved much recently, he truly was losing it. She had planned that if she ever encountered Roy during her search, especially if she was this close to a lead, then she would tell him what she found and if possible avoid the subject of their child. But seeing him tonight she knew she couldn't do that, not when she hadn't read the file yet. Even if she had and it turned out to be what she thought getting away from Roy was too easy tonight, that arrow had gone to far from her face to be even a warning shot and normally he lasted much longer with the weak knock out gas she had on her.

"I need a plan," she finally admitted to herself. This was getting way to dangerous, much as she hated to admit it her father was right, if she kept this up history was bound to repeat itself, and she had barely survived the first time.

What she needed was a place to go, a safe place, a place Roy would never look for her if he ever bothered looking.

Only one place came to mind.

* * *

"I'll get it mom," Artemis said as she stood up from the couch. She had just finished her junior year of college and was now home for the summer.

Walking over to the door of the apartment Artemis had to admit that she was a little fearful about who had come knocking at almost eleven o'clock at night, especially in Gotham and especially with her dad's track record, though his friends never used to knock. Anyway for these reasons she considered it perfectly acceptable when she grabbed an umbrella and held up ever so slightly so that it could be used as a weapon, had it not been for the puffy and red eyes of the visitors she just might have used it.

"Jade?" Artemis questioned in shock

"Hey sis" Jade sniffled in a scratchy voice.

Artemis took a moment to study her sister, she was standing with her shoulders slumped and her head as down as it could go without breaking eye contact. Her eyes were red and ever few seconds she sniffled, had she been crying? Her legs and face looked like they usually did, apart from her eyes, so she probably wasn't coming from a bad fight. In her right hand was gripping her Cheshire mask and a folder while her left hand hung at her side. What really threw Artemis was that she was wearing a baggy sweatshirt, Jade HATES sweatshirts. Both of them used to be forced to wear one every day in order to hide the bruises from their father, until one day Jade had enough and left for school with a belly shirt on underneath her sweatshirt and once she was on the bus she discarded the baggy garment. It took awhile but when she kept doing it Sportsmaster eventually eased up on his treatment.

"Artemis, who is at the door?" Their mother's voice called, Artemis instantly looked nervous while Jade looked desperate.

"Can I please come in?" She asked, more like begged, in a soft voice.

Artemis, unable to think of what to say, stepped aside and opened the door for Jade just as their mother wheeled herself into the living room.

"Jade" Paula gasped, unsure if this were a happy occasion or not.

"Hi mom" Jade said solemnly as Artemis closed the door.

"Jade what's happened?" Paula questioned, noticing that her tough as nails daughter was visibly upset "is it your father?" She questioned.

 _I wish_ Jade thought as she set her mask and the file down on the coffee table. "No" she answered as the tears began to resurface. "I'm sorry I, I didn't want to come and be your problem but I didn't know where else to go" she sobbed.

"Oh Jade" Paula said gently as she reached a hand towards her daughter and took her hand inside of her own. "You are always welcome here, no matter what" she assured her.

This was starting to scare Artemis. She had seen Jade beaten senseless without a single tear, she had seen Jade risk her life by revealing her bruises to her sixth grade teacher, she had even seen Jade kill. So what could possibly be enough to break her?

"Mom's right, now just tell us what happened" The blond instructed, it wasn't normally like her to be so trusting. But then again, it wasn't normal for Jade to show up at the doorstep in tears.

"It's a long story, just please don't be too mad over it" Jade asked and with that said she removed her sweatshirt, revealing her reason for wearing it.

She felt a little mean for doing it, considering Jade seemed to be pretty terrified right now, but Artemis face palmed. A part of her saw this coming, maybe not today but she knew enough about her sister's "style" to know that this had been far from impossible for a few years now.

"Jade" their mother's accusing voice finally broke the silence.

"Do I even want to know?" Artemis asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Actually I think you might" Jade answered, her typical and foreshadowing voice back in place.

Jade spent the next hour filling in her mother and sister on where exactly she had been and what she had been up to, specifically during the past four and a half years. Although a little hurt that she wasn't told sooner Paula was happy to hear that Jade had gotten married before she became pregnant, Artemis on the other hand nearly strangled her when she told them who it was she was married to. In the end her mother had no reservations about her staying and she was surprised to find that her side of the bedroom she and Artemis grew up in looked as though it hadn't been touched since she ran away ten years ago.

"I thought you would've moved my bed out by now" she commented.

"For a while I was hoping you would come back, guess maybe I shouldn't have given that up" Artemis commented as she sat down on her own bed, a scowl still evident on her face.

"You're still mad aren't you?" Jade asked.

Artemis didn't know what to say to her sister, this wasn't like the Jade she knew. The Jade she knew was selfish and confident, not timid and concerned with the feelings of others. But she supposed that Roy, however broken he may be, had somehow done a thing or two to fix her. Finally the blond archer sighed

"I'm not mad Jade" she admitted "I'm just trying to process the fact that you temporarily walked out on your husband six months ago because you were pregnant and you're just coming here now, have you even been to a doctor?" She questioned but Jade shrugged as she sat down beside her sister.

"Only to get the pregnancy test confirmed, there isn't a doctor I go to regularly and I figured mom never went to a doctor with me so..." she trailed off.

"Yeah and you were two months premature and almost died, you can't seriously be willing to take that chance on your kid?" She asked but she almost regretted it when Jade's face turned from concern to fear and she gripped the edge of the mattress. "You know what we'll figure this out later, for now let's just get to bed, it's late" she said, deciding that some problems could be dealt with in the morning.

* * *

Sure enough Jade was dragged by her sister to a doctor the morning after she showed up at the apartment, and Artemis breathed a huge sigh of relief when the doctor told them that everything looked fine. At first Jade had been very smug about this, because really it gave her something to tease Artemis about. But a few nights later she found herself glad for Artemis's concern, because when the sudden pain woke her up she immediately panicked.

It was nearly two in the morning when Artemis was quickly woken by the sound of her sister jolting up in bed with a gasp.

"What's wrong?" She demanded as she sat up herself, Jade sat in bed breathing cautiously, as if waiting for something to happen.

"I don't know, something hurt. Maybe, maybe I dreamt it" Jade suggested before she suddenly hunched of clutching her stomach.

In an instant Artemis was up and halfway to her side before she held out a hand "I'm fine" Jade insisted as her breathing became normal "I'm fine" she said again.

"Are you sure?" Artemis asked and Jade nodded

"Yeah, I'm sure." She told her and Artemis may have still not believed her if Jade didn't start blushing with embarrassment.

"What?" The blond asked, not seeing what her sister had to be embarrassed about.

"First time the baby kicks and we're both ready to pull the fire alarm" Jade chuckled.

Upon hearing that Artemis relaxed and started to laugh herself "Just like you, up all night" she joked and Jade began laughing but it was nothing more than a failed attempt at hiding what she was really feeling, and knowing it Artemis sat down on the edge of her bed. "Jade I know things are a mess right now, but they're looking up" she tried to assure her but the raven-haired girl only rolled her eyes.

"Really? You take me showing up in tears at my mother's doorstep knocked up as a sign of things getting better?" She questioned, taking her little sister's words as nothing but false hope.

"Look around you Jade. Sure right now things are a mess but look at the big picture. Ten years ago you walked out of this room and made it clear that you weren't coming back for me" she began and Jade frowned "but now your husband is in trouble and although you left, you left to help him. You told me that once you can you're going back for him, and I believe you. I can see it in your eyes, you've changed Jade." She continued and this time Jade looked up. "You've hit a rough patch but over all your life's been alright since you met Roy, and you're going get it back on track" She finished.

Jade smiled "You know for two kids who didn't stand a chance, we turned out alright" she said, she hoped Artemis was right about her future but the young blond hadn't done so bad herself. In the fall she would be a senior at Stanford University and she was planning to move in with her boyfriend of the past four years, who although Jade was yet to admit it she found to be a great guy for her sister.

"Yeah, I guess we did" Artemis smiled.


	5. Family Bonds (Part 3)

It was now the middle of July and Artemis was gone most days with Wally, trying to find an apartment out in California. Thankfully the zeta tubes allowed her to remain living in Gotham while they looked. Wally came over one night for dinner, and judging by the fact that he was reasonably friendly towards Jade and made absolutely no comment on the fact that she was obviously seven months pregnant, Jade figured that Artemis had told him something, maybe not everything because she swore that she wouldn't, but she had to have warned him.

"So Wally, what exactly did Artemis tell you about me moving back in?" She questioned him during dinner, she was normally a very subtle person but tonight she just didn't have the patients to beat around the bush with the speedster, besides the sight of Artemis pinching the bridge of her nose always gave Jade just a little joy.

"Uh just that you needed a place to crash for a little bit, congrats on getting out of the life by the way" Wally answered, squirming in his seat as he did so.

"You didn't tell him?" Jade asked Artemis

"No I didn't tell him!" Artemis shouted back, almost seeming to forget her boyfriend was sitting right there.

"Artemis keep your voice down," Paula scolded

"I didn't think you would want me to." She said to Jade, in a much more calm voice.

At this point Wally was completely lost but he figured it was for the better that he didn't ask. Normally he wouldn't like to hear that Artemis was keeping something from him but he figured that in this case whatever it was, it was part of Jade's personal life, and that was something which he knew better than to ask about.

"Can you keep a secret Wally?" Jade asked, her signature smirk on her face.

"Why?" Wally questioned, praying that she wasn't about to tell him that she hadn't really left the life. He may not be very close to Jade but he and Artemis had been together for four years now and he loved her family the way he loved his own, unconditionally. Every once in a awhile he would call Paula 'mom' by accident, sometimes he even did it on purpose just to see the smile it brought to her face. He never knew what to think of Jade and Sportsmaster, but now that Jade had returned he just instantly felt like losing her would be like losing a sister.

"I don't want to force Artemis to keep secrets from you, but you can't repeat what I'm about to tell you to anyone, especially anyone with ties to the Justice League" she warned, now Wally was really worried.

"Cheshire I swear if you-" he began but abruptly shut up when she pointed her fork right at him.

"No need for that name West, I'm not going back to crime." She admitted, smiling in satisfaction when his accusing expression faded into embarrassment.

"Then why?" He started

"Wally just don't tell anyone, please." Artemis asked and trusting that Artemis would never keep secrets important to the league he nodded.

"Ok" he agreed, though he was still a little bit skeptical.

"Artemis what did you tell him?" She asked and Artemis sighed

"Just that you got married in Vegas on whim one night and your husband has no idea where you are, or that you're pregnant." She confessed; Jade frowned in response.

"I don't know what's more upsetting, how pathetic you made that sound or the fact that it is a very stripped down version of the truth," she commented before turning her attention back to Wally. "Anyway I did get married in Vegas on whim but it was to my boyfriend of two years, not to mention this was two years ago." She shot a glare at Artemis as if to prove to her that it hadn't been a stupid decision, which Artemis never said it was. "But he's got some problems and the way he is now… he wouldn't have been able to handle a baby" she confessed, trying to find the nicest way to put that.

"Right, listen Chesh- I mean Jade, I'm sorry to hear that but what does this have to do with the league?" Wally asked and Jade sighed

"It's Roy," she said quietly, but that was all she had to say.

A part of Wally didn't believe it; another part of him saw it coming. It was no secret to anyone who had ever worked with Red Arrow that he and Cheshire often flirted in battle. But for whatever reason no one ever put it together that the two of them had faded off the radar around the same time.

"He's that bad?" The still stunned speedster finally managed to ask after a minute of just sitting there with his mouth open.

Solemnly Jade nodded "I've seen him once since I left, he's only gotten worse" she admitted.

"Green Arrow's been looking for him, I promise I won't say anything about you or the baby to him but do you know maybe where he could find Roy?" Wally asked

"We tried that, GA staked out the address Jade gave him every night for a month, Roy never showed" Artemis confessed.

"But don't worry about Green Arrow, he knows too" Jade admitted

"Then who, besides Roy, doesn't know?" Wally asked, becoming frustrated that Jade and Artemis had repeatedly warned him not to tell anybody yet another member of the league already knew.

"Everyone apart from Black Canary" Jade answered him. She hadn't been too keen on letting anyone from the Justice League find out, especially Roy's mentor and his girlfriend. But in the time that she was gone those two had taken Artemis in and become as much a part of her life as they had her mother's, they had become family and Jade wouldn't keep secrets from her little sister's family.

Wally nodded, he understood why Jade had told those two specific league members, and it has nothing to do with Roy. Even though he and Artemis had left the life she was still very close with those two and they often visited each other, he supposed Jade figured if Ollie and Dinah would be at the apartment visiting as often as they do then she may as well tell them the truth.

* * *

"You didn't have to tell Wally" Artemis said to her sister later that night, as the two of them were lying awake in their beds.

"He's like family to you and mom" Jade responded, arching an eyebrow Artemis rolled onto her side, a new question in her mind.

"Does dad know?" She asked, as far as she was concerned family had never counted for anything when it came to the judgment of her older sister, unless it was life or death. But clearly something had changed; recently judging by how unsure of herself Jade seemed lately.

"He knows I'm pregnant, we had a run in when I was four months along and he figured it out. I just hope he doesn't know its Roy's" Jade answered

"I doubt he does, if he did Roy would've died long before that night you ran into him" Artemis joked and Jade gave about half a laugh in response before it was silent again. "Is that why you told Ollie and Dinah?" Artemis asked but when she turned her head she saw Jade's eyes were closed.

"Hmmhm" the older girl murmured as she drifted off into sleep.

Artemis smiled softly "thanks sis" she whispered before rolling back over and falling asleep herself.

* * *

Considering how afraid Jade was that she would be early she couldn't really blame Artemis and Wally for all the jokes they made when she was late. It was mostly Wally and at first Artemis tried to discourage him but in the past two months he and Jade had come to be something close to friends, at the very least they were comfortable around each other. So because of this Artemis figured that Jade could use a friend cracking jokes at her expense and let Wally have his fun, she even joined in on a few.

"I'm glad you two are getting some enjoyment out of my torture" Jade remarked on the night two days past her due date. The four of them were sitting in the living room watching a movie; well Paula, Jade, and Wally were sitting. Artemis was lying on the couch with her head in Wally's lap. At first Wally and Artemis had told Jade she could have the couch but considering that at this point she spent most of the days lying in her bed she insisted that she wanted to sit in the fold out chair which seemed to have become a permanent addition to the living room, a decision she immediately regretted but was too stubborn to admit.

So out of pure stubbornness Jade sat there for a good hour, and it was an hour because she kept watching the clock to determine when she could get up without the others knowing she had been desperately waiting to.

"Hey I'm sure you'll be able to pay me back for it at some point" Artemis joked, she knew what kind of joke she was handing her sister but she figured that she deserved it, besides it probably wasn't a lie.

Jade smirked "You hear that West, you two are next" she commented and even her mother laughed when Wally's face turned a bright red color.

"Uh… I mean we're probably going to wait a couple years but…" The redhead began stuttering and at this point Jade was laughing hysterically not because of him, but because of how uncomfortable he was making Artemis. By now she had sat up and the look on her face was just begging for him to shut up, but at the same time she still found he's awkward stuttering funny and so she was also trying not to laugh.

"Wait, you're **probably** going to wait a coupe years?" Jade asked through her laughter, realizing that one key word in Wally's defense was probably.

"We ARE going to wait a couple years," Artemis said before her boyfriend could dig himself into a deeper hole.

"But you are going to have children together?" Paula asked, a teasing smirk on her own face.

"Mom!" Artemis exclaimed in horror, her mother's involvement only made Jade laugh harder.

Considering that tomorrow she would be three days overdue Jade had already looked up ways of naturally inducing labor, laughter was not on the list she found. But despite that one minute she was laughing harder than she had in a long time, and the next her face was frozen in fear because she felt the trickle of liquid between her thighs, her water broke.

"Hey, you ok?" Wally asked; Paula and Artemis were so wrapped up in their argument that neither of them had noticed Jade's sudden silence and expression of panic.

"My water broke" even though she practically whispered the sentence her bickering family members heard her loud and clear and immediately stopped their argument cold.

For a moment nobody in the room made a move, not even Jade. They all just sat there processing what was happening.

"Let's get going" Paula finally ordered.

* * *

"What's wrong?" Wally asked as he and Artemis sat in the waiting room of the hospital. It had been only ten o'clock when they admitted Jade but now it was nearing four in the morning. Wally had contacted his parents to say that he wouldn't be coming home until tomorrow, which now was today. He and Artemis had kept Jade company during most of her labor, along with Paula, but the two of them had been ushered out roughly a half hour ago by a doctor, and that was not going over well with Artemis whom Wally had never seen this worried.

It was kind of funny, they way she was reminding him of himself. She sat hunched over in her chair, a grip on her coffee so tight that if it got any tighter she would probably break the cup. Not to mention that her right leg was moving up and down at a speed that Wally would never admit rivaled his own.

"I have seen Jade shot, electrocuted, and beaten to a pulp. But I have never seen her show as much pain as she was in there" Artemis admitted and Wally chuckled.

"Yeah, I've heard childbirth can hurt even the strongest of women" he said as he sat down next to his girlfriend.

"This isn't a joke Wally, both my mother and Jade almost died when she was born, what if something goes wrong?" She asked, fear in her eyes.

"Babe, your sister is one of the strongest people I've ever met. In fact the only person I know just as strong is you. She's going to be fine and as for the baby, well it's a mix of Jade and Roy Harper, the kid's got some good genes." He assured the blond, putting his arm around her for comfort.

Artemis smiled softly at her boyfriend, and hoped that he was right. About fifteen minutes or so later a doctor came to get them.

"Artemis Crock?" He asked so both she and Wally stood up.

"Yes?" Artemis asked and all the fear she had was washed away when the doctor cracked a smile.

"Your sister wanted me to tell you that you can go meet your niece," he said.

* * *

When Artemis and Wally walked in the room any doctors or nurses who had been in there were gone and now it was just Paula, a large smile spread across her face, and an exhausted looking Jade holding tight to a pink bundle in her arms.

"Hey" Artemis said softly

"You don't have to whisper, she's wide awake" Jade chuckled as she gently shifted the bundle in her arms so her visitors could see the baby's face.

Her skin was still a rosy pink color, as it probably would remain for another day or two. She didn't have much hair that they could see but what they could see was thin bangs of an auburn color sweeping across her little forehead. She had Jade's eyes; there was no doubt about that. Overall Artemis thought her niece looked perfect.

"What's her name?" The blond finally asked

"Lian Nguyen Harper" Jade responded with a small but proud smile, looking down at the little girl like she was the most precious thing in the world.

"I thought you hated hyphenated names?" Artemis somewhat mocked

"I do. Nguyen is her middle name" Jade clarified and Artemis nodded, this wasn't the first time she had heard of a mother using her maiden name for her baby's middle name.

"Wait you gave her Roy's last name?" Wally questioned and everyone in the room, minus Lian, shot the speedster a death glare which said _wait to go Wally._

"Of course I did" Jade said and with that she handed her daughter over to Artemis, which proved to be effective in silencing the archer's red headed boyfriend.

* * *

"I still don't like the idea of you taking her with you" Artemis said, sitting on her old bed with five month old Lian on her lap, happily amusing herself with some teething rings that she didn't actually need just yet.

"I worked more dangerous jobs until I was nearly six months pregnant with her, if anything she'll be easier to manage now" Jade responded as she packed the side compartments of her backpack. "Besides if your friends can talk some sense into Roy then there's no need to worry," she continued.

Ollie had finally had some luck locating Roy and so tonight he along with anyone he thought could help were supposed to hunt him down and intervene. As far as Jade knew five people were participating in this last attempt to help her husband, and three of them know about Lian. Actually four if Nightwing had somehow found out and with his record Jade wouldn't doubt it. But the three were Ollie, Dinah, and Wally and all three of them had agreed that it was not their place to tell Roy he was a father; that was Jade's job.

"You know him Jade, what are the chances of that?" Artemis asked, already knowing the answer.

"Slim to none" Jade admitted with a sigh as she turned around and leaned against her bed, "but that's why it has to be this way. If I had gone with them then he would know I had reformed but he wouldn't believe me when I told him it was because of him, and he'd just say that Lian is best off without him." She explained but Artemis still glared at her disapprovingly.

"I get that, but you can't bring your daughter with you to Tibet when you could be facing dad's 'friends'." She argued, raising her voice enough to make Lian cry.

Rolling her eyes Jade took her daughter from Artemis and rocked her gently back in forth to calm her.

"Try and understand Artemis. Roy is one of the most obsessive and stubborn human beings I've ever met. He's been driving himself insane for the past five years trying to find Speedy, it's killing him and he knows it. That's why he would never let Lian get hurt, he knows if he does he'll never let himself forget it." She explained and Artemis clearly still didn't like the idea but she didn't protest anymore.

Two hours later after Artemis had gone home to her new apartment in California and Lian had fallen asleep Jade got a call from Green Arrow.

"It didn't work" his gruff and disappointed voice told her

"Ok, my turn" she responded

"Good luck, and Jade" the man on the other end added quickly before she could hang up.

"Yeah?" She asked

"Even if you can't get him to come around, you'll always have family in me." He said to her. Her voice was calm as ever when she told him "thank you" and "goodbye" but had he been in the room he would've seen the tear rolling down her cheek.

Hanging up the phone Jade turned to her bed where Lian was already in the backpack and out like a light. Careful not to wake her, Jade strapped the bag onto her back.

"Ok baby, let's go say hi to daddy," he whispered.


	6. Ever After

Roy didn't know what he expected. Part of him expected both Jade and Lian to be gone when he returned home from the hospital but when he jumped through the window just past noon on that day after they found Speedy, Jade was in the kitchen making lunch.

"How'd it go?" She asked as her husband removed his mask and set down his bow.

"Alright, Ollie got there a few hours ago, finally convinced me to come home." He answered and continued to just stand there uncomfortably for another minute or two before finally taking a seat on one of the barstools at the counter.

"Where's Lian?" He asked; it was the only thing he could think to say.

"Taking a nap" Jade answered simply

"Don't we usually wait until two to put her down in the afternoon?" Roy questioned, Lian may have only been in his life for two weeks but he was making sure to put an effort into becoming the father Jade seemed so sure he could be, the father he wanted to be.

Jade smirked and shrugged as she put the sandwich supplies back in the fridge, no doubt reveling in the fact that Roy knew their daughter's sleep schedule. "Normally yes but remember how she started to fall asleep at the hospital last night?" She asked and Roy nodded, remembering how Jade accompanied him to the hospital but left not long after everything was settled so that she could bring Lian home. "Well that hour we were there for was all she slept. As soon as we left she woke up and she never went back to sleep, guess she missed you."

"Does that mean you haven't slept?" Roy questioned as his wife put a sandwich in front of him and then sat down beside him with her own lunch, completely ignoring the fact that she had just said his daughter had missed him.

"I'm used to it. Besides I hate sleeping during the day, it throws me off way too much" She answered and Roy couldn't argue with that. At one point during the past two weeks he had forced Jade to take a nap and when she woke up she was so out of it that she actually fainted. He had seen her asleep during the day only a handful of times in the years he had known her but from what he could remember every time she woke up she was more dazed than she was when she was drunk. Long story short, naps and Jade's biological clock just don't mix.

The two of them sat there in silence for what was almost an unbearable amount of time, and secretly each of them was silently praying that Lian would start crying in the next room just to put a stop to it. But when it became clear that their daughter wasn't going to delay this inevitable conversation Roy decided to speak up.

"You know when you left, I was so mad at myself for losing you." He began

"Roy you never-" Jade started to say but Roy cut her off.

"I know, I never actually lost you, I know that now. What I don't understand is why?" He asked, looking at Jade almost desperately. "Why did you come back? Why, why did you help me? It would've been so easy Jade, you could've run off and made a good life for yourself and our daughter. You could've met someone who would love both you and Lian-" he began asking but when he said that she could've found someone else, someone better, her eyes narrowed and she looked as though she were about to slam her cup onto the counter.

"When I was a kid my parents wedding picture was always hanging in the hallway" she began, the calmness of her voice not matching up with the scowl on her face. "They looked so happy in it and I thought that maybe there was a time when they actually were happy together. But there wasn't and I grew up being told that marriage is the biggest mistake you could ever make." She then turned her head and glared at him, "I don't know about you, but when I agreed to 'til death do us part' I meant it, because believe me I've seen what happens when you don't" she explained.

Jade didn't really know what she was expecting Roy to say to her, but she certainly wasn't expecting him to lean over and envelope her in a tight hug.

"I'm sorry," he murmured into the crook of her neck, tears beginning to spill from his eyes.

"It's ok" Jade whispered as she locked her arms around his neck "I know I haven't given you much of a choice in being around for Lian…" She trailed off. She knew that Roy had the potential to be a great father, and she didn't want Lian growing up the way she did, with a father who didn't care.

That was when Roy pulled away with a small grin "you've never given me much of a choice in anything" he remarked before, for the first time since she came back, he leaned in and kissed her.

Jade was slightly caught off guard by the kiss, but she returned it nothing less. She had missed kissing him, had missed the rush that came with his lips crashing into hers. He pulled away almost to soon and Jade knew that whatever he was about to say, it was either going to make or break them.

"But that's why I love you" he said and this time it was Jade who pulled his head back to her to continue their kiss.

* * *

"It's open" fourteen-year-old Lian said when there was a knock at her bedroom door and she wasn't surprised at all when her mother entered.

"You ok kid?" She asked leaning in the doorway.

Lian was sitting on her bed, staring intently at the bow in her lap.

"You know you really should clean up in here" Jade commented, her daughter's bedroom floor was littered with a mix of old toys she was too stubborn to pack away, dirty clothes, and a few bobby pins here and there.

"How's Owen?" The teenager finally asked, her little brother is only seven years old; he shouldn't be fighting for his life right now.

"He's fine, he just needs some rest" Jade answered as she shut the door and made her way over to her daughter's bed, careful not to step on anything in the process.

Lian had grown up to resemble her more than Roy, whom everyone originally thought she would look like. Her skin at some point had turned to a more olive color like her mother's and her hair had darkened, though it was more of a dark brown than black. Her face however greatly resembles Roy, with the exception of her stormy gray eyes. Owen looks much more like his father, with his much more Caucasian looking skin, red hair, and blue eyes. He'd practically be a mini Roy if it weren't for his freckles and long bangs. Arianna, Roy and Jade's two year old and youngest child; was the best mix of them. She had Jade's hair but Roy's eyes, and skin that was somewhere in between the both of them.

"Li, what happened tonight wasn't your fault" Jade assured her daughter

"You weren't there," Lian answered bitterly, finally looking up from her bow. She had returned from her mission three hours ago, but she was still yet to change out of her costume. It was her father's original Speedy costume so she had taken off the hat and the mask but that was it. After bringing her brother's bloody and barely conscious body to the watchtower she had been told to go home and change, but instead she just came home and sat in the blood soaked uniform.

"I caught him early. We were already in the bioship when I found out he had stowed away but I still could've told Cassie to turn back." Lian admitted as she gritted her teeth "but stupid Damian started saying that I shouldn't be on the mission if I can't even keep track of my own brother and… I just… I don't know I wasn't thinking and I thought I could protect Owen, but I couldn't." She explained, anger at both herself and Damian Wayne lacing her words.

Only about a month after Arsenal was rescued Roy returned to the Justice League, three years later Cheshire was initiated in. So Lian grew up in the world of the Justice League and finally joined the team this year. Her parents made it very clear that she didn't have to be a hero if she didn't want to be, but it was all she wanted. Now however, she wasn't so sure.

"Well Damian has some behavior issues," Jade said, mostly in an attempt to make Lian smile but instead she only looked more upset.

"Doesn't mean I should give in to what he says," she said with a frown.

Part of Jade knew that Lian was right, she really should've had the common sense to ignore Damian's teasing and bring Owen back to the Watchtower. But at the same time she felt bad enough about it already, she didn't really need a lecture.

"You know I hate it when you beat yourself up, takes all the fun out of punishing you." Jade joked and when it got her daughter to give even the smallest ghost of a smile she knew that she was making progress, but then Lian's smile faded.

"I've been training my whole life to be one the team, ever since the first time you brought me to the Watchtower it's been my dream. Now I just blew it six months in," she said, hanging her head.

"Owen is the one who stowed away on that ship, and believe me once Black Canary lets him out of that med-bay he is going to wish the damage had been worse. You're still new to the team, not to mention that you're youngest. But you took it upon yourself to look after a seven-year-old who had no business being with you guys. End results aside I wouldn't say you blew it." She said and Lian finally looked up and smiled a real smile before turning to her mother.

"You really think I can be a hero?" She asked and with a smirk Jade kissed her on the forehead, remembering how had it not been for Lian she may never had cut all her criminal ties, and things between her and Roy might have ended quite differently.

"You already are" she assured her daughter.

* * *

 **Hey guys I just want to thank everyone for reading and for all the great reviews! They've meant a lot to me and this story went a little longer than originally intended but i hope you guys liked it! Thanks again for reading!**


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